I have OCD so this is may just be all in my head but I've noticed A LOT weird coincidences over the last few weeks.

I'll think of someone randomly and within a minute they call me. I'm watching a TV show and remember a previous episode, and a few seconds later they show a flashback of that episode. Sometimes a thought will appear and I'll say it aloud, after which someone will say that's what they were thinking. And just now I was listening to Imee Ooi singing the Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Dharani while web surfing. I came across a Daoist forum I've never seen before and the Dharani was in someone's sig.

Am I psychic or something? And if I am, how can tell the difference between my intuition and my OCD telling me I'm going to have cancer in a few months?

Equanimity is the ground. Love is the moisture. Compassion is the seed. Bodhicitta is the result.

"All memories and thoughts are the union of emptiness and knowing, the Mind.Without attachment, self-liberating, like a snake in a knot.Through the qualities of meditating in that way,Mental obscurations are purified and the dharmakaya is attained."

See also 'Ideas Of Reference' which despite the wiki entry ( which does not sufficiently distinguish between 'ideas of reference ' ' and ' delusions of reference ' ) can happen to those who have no actual mental health issue given the right set of conditions.

this stuff is a bit psychotic. i can relate to this that i used to see numbers like 111 etc and i had to give them a meaning, and im seeing the same thing with your paranoia about these coincidences. you just give them meaning and make yourself crazy, they are without meaning, they are just random so to speak. its not like everysingle moment of your life is like that. if so that would be strange.

If the thought of demons Never rises in your mind, You need not fear the demon hosts around you. It is most important to tame your mind within....

In so far as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned, there are neither buddhas or demons. He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue, will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion. Samsara will then appear as the mahamudra itself….

Konchog 1: Why psychotic? Why freaking out? I find such coincidences quite normal? I always enjoy, when something like that happens to me. It showes me: thoughts are only some vibrations within and without. They are not nessessarily my own and I am not my thoughts at all.

Konchog1 wrote:I have OCD so this is may just be all in my head but I've noticed A LOT weird coincidences over the last few weeks.

I'll think of someone randomly and within a minute they call me. I'm watching a TV show and remember a previous episode, and a few seconds later they show a flashback of that episode. Sometimes a thought will appear and I'll say it aloud, after which someone will say that's what they were thinking. And just now I was listening to Imee Ooi singing the Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Dharani while web surfing. I came across a Daoist forum I've never seen before and the Dharani was in someone's sig.

Am I psychic or something? And if I am, how can tell the difference between my intuition and my OCD telling me I'm going to have cancer in a few months?

If the thought of demons Never rises in your mind, You need not fear the demon hosts around you. It is most important to tame your mind within....

In so far as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned, there are neither buddhas or demons. He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue, will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion. Samsara will then appear as the mahamudra itself….

Well, the Dharani is really popular, one of the most popular.. that's hardly even something you could call a coincidence..you, a Buddhist hearing it is common, Buddhist frequenting Daoist places is common, and therefore a certain number of people will have it in their sig, and you saw it.

I see faces in everything, constantly..I've had it my whole life, even more when I meditate, it was struggle to get past it when I started meditating with eyes open. They seem real and tangible and full of meaning. If there is a meaning though, I don't know what it is..my mind can make up whatever stories about them, but those are just stories. Personally i've given up looking for meaning in these things, the world is weird as hell and it connects in ways we can't even begin to imagine.

Once when Hyakujo delivered some Zen lectures an old man attended them, unseen by the monks. At the end of each talk when the monks left so did he. But one day he remained after the had gone, and Hyakujo asked him: `Who are you?'The old man replied: `I am not a human being, but I was a human being when the Kashapa Buddha preached in this world. I was a Zen master and lived on this mountain. At that time one of my students asked me whether the enlightened man is subject to the law of causation. I answered him: "The enlightened man is not subject to the law of causation." For this answer evidencing a clinging to absoluteness I became a fox for five hundred rebirths, and I am still a fox. Will you save me from this condition with your Zen words and let me get out of a fox's body? Now may I ask you: Is the enlightened man subject to the law of causation?'

Hyakujo said: `The enlightened man is one with the law of causation.'

At the words of Hyakujo the old man was enlightened. `I am emancipated,' he said, paying homage with a deep bow. `I am no more a fox, but I have to leave my body in my dwelling place behind this mountain. Please perform my funeral as a monk.' The he disappeared.

The next day Hyakujo gave an order through the chief monk to prepare to attend the funeral of a monk. `No one was sick in the infirmary,' wondered the monks. `What does our teacher mean?'

After dinner Hyakujo led the monks out and around the mountain. In a cave, with his staff he poked out the corpse of an old fox and then performed the ceremony of cremation.

That evening Hyakujo gave a talk to the monks and told this story about the law of causation.

Obaku, upon hearing this story, asked Hyakujo: `I understand that a long time ago because a certain person gave a wrong Zen answer he became a fox for five hundred rebirths. Now I was to ask: If some modern master is asked many questions, and he always gives the right answer, what will become of him?'

Hyakujo said: `You come here near me and I will tell you.'

Obaku went near Hyakujo and slapped the teacher's face with this hand, for he knew this was the answer his teacher intended to give him.

Hyakujo clapped his hands and laughed at the discernment. `I thought a Persian had a red beard,' he said, `and now I know a Persian who has a red beard.'

Konchog. I've noticed that sort of thing too. I think it may just have to do with karmas being triggered by conducive conditions. Or karmas that are in the process of maturing into their full blown results.

The world is so complicated, it's hard to be sure what is going on.

If there is a radical inconsistency between your statements and the position you claim to hold,you are a sock puppet.Make as many accounts as you want; people can identify your deception with this test.

"All memories and thoughts are the union of emptiness and knowing, the Mind.Without attachment, self-liberating, like a snake in a knot.Through the qualities of meditating in that way,Mental obscurations are purified and the dharmakaya is attained."

afaik these are ordinary meditation experiences as they can occur both during meditation and post-meditation. In Tibetan they are referred to as nyams, the Zen term is makyo. The general advice is not to pay attention to them.

Do you know Philip Kapleau's book "The Three Pillars of Zen"? It has a really interesting chapter on makyo (though it's only a couple of pages). Makyo refers to all kinds of hallucinations and perceptual distortions that can occur during and between meditation sessions. Having thoughts and premonitions which later turn out to be true is explicitly listed as one example.

While most makyo are of a hallucinatory nature, some of them can turn out to be true. However, as you already said yourself, you have no chance to know in advance which ones are true. One of the reasons one shouldn't pay attention to these kind of experiences is that they can easily drive you mad if you take them too seriously. Another reason is they're a waste of time and distract you from your meditation. From a Zen point of view the most important point to understand is that even the ones which are true on the conventional level of reality are deceptions compared to the absolute truth of emptiness.

I don't know if there is a chapter on nyams somewhere in the literature on Tibetan Buddhism which is as comprehensive and precise as the teachings by Yasutani Roshi in Kapleau's book. If so it would be great if someone could post a reference. Until now I've only found a couple of sentences here and there.

Last edited by emaho on Sun Oct 13, 2013 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

emaho, formerly ReasonAndRhyme

"Forget about being clever, and simply remain." Guru Rinpoche, Treasures from Juniper Ridge

"All memories and thoughts are the union of emptiness and knowing, the Mind.Without attachment, self-liberating, like a snake in a knot.Through the qualities of meditating in that way,Mental obscurations are purified and the dharmakaya is attained."

Johnny Dangerous wrote:Personally i've given up looking for meaning in these things, the world is weird as hell and it connects in ways we can't even begin to imagine.

Well said. Very wise.

Not wise or well said. Wrong. Completely. The way things interrelate is directly reflected in mind. What he's experiencing is the beginning of wisdom of interdependence, which is the siddhi. So the devils can pipe down now.